| Title | Electricity Production from Hot Rocks |
|---|---|
| Authors | J. Baumgärtner, D. Teza, T. Hettkamp, G. Homeier, R. Baria and S. Michelet |
| Year | 2005 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | HDR, EGS, Rhine Graben, Stress Regime, Drilling, Stimulation, Pilot Plant |
| Abstract | The European geothermal research program for the extraction of energy from Hot Dry Rocks started at Soultz sous-ForÍts in 1987. The test site is located in France on the western edge of the Rhine Graben, about 50 km north of Strasbourg near the German border. The granite basement at Soultz lies below app. 1400 m of sedimentary cover; the fracture network in the granite has been explored down to 5000 m depth, where temperatures exceed 200?C. The planned scientific pilot plant will use a total of three 5 km deep boreholes, two for production and one for re-injection. The drilling of the 2nd production well GPK4 was finalized on 11th of April 2004. The directional well GPK4 reached a length of 5260 m and a vertical depth of 4982 m, the casing shoe is located at 4756 m measured depth. GPK4 was kicked off at 2100 m depth and the openhole section is separated by 1150 m south from the wellhead. UBI, GPIT, EMC, HNGS logs were performed in the openhole section to characterize the deep fractures in the granite. After the deepening of the 1st production well GPK2 in 1999, the stimulation of GPK2 in 2000, the drilling of the central injection well GPK3 in 2002, the stimulation of GPK3 in 2003 and the drilling of the 2nd production well GPK4 in spring 2004 the underground work of the scientific HDR pilot plant will be finalized with the stimulation of GPK4 and a re-stimulation of GPK3 in autumn 2004. It is expected that by end of 2007 for the first time a HDR pilot plant will be able to produce around 50 MW of thermal power at temperatures above 180?C. Up to 6 MW of electricity can be produced from this heat where the net output of the power plant is expected to be in the order of 4.5 MWe. |